Listen! The snow is falling. Well it was. Fresh Goods Friday is sponsored by Yellow Jersey.
The bike industry is slowly waking up from its yuletide slumber – as are we all no doubt – but we are yet to have our letterbox interfered with quite as much as we’d like. That said, we have had a few secret things delivered that we can’t reveal unto you just yet. So you’ll just have to make do with this modest collection of New Stuff.
Just a quick mention that the UK National Cyclo-cross Championships is to be streamed on British Cycling’s YouTube this Sunday. It’s not free-to-view but it is only £2.99 subscription. Which ain’t bad. And it gives yiou excuse to bail out of riding if you don’t fancy Sunday’s conditions!
*Discount is subject to T&C’s, which can be found at yellowjersey.co.uk/terms. Coverage is subject to T&C’s. Please refer to the policy wording for full details.
BBB CoreCap
- Price: £15.00
- From: BBB Cycling
Another week, another product reinventing the tubeless valve. Just how problematic is the average punter finding tubeless valves? These CoreCaps from BBB aren’t actually complete tubeless valves; they’re little doohickies that replace the valve core in presta tubeless valves. Remove the valve core and screw in/on a BBB CoreCap. It essentially converts presta to schrader. Bigger bore. More air flow. Should be less affected by sealant clog. Won’t work with presta-flavoured pumps/CO2 heads etc.
Galfer Advanced Disc Brake Pads
- Price: £21.98
- From: Silverfish UK
As many a boring bike journo (ahem) will tell you, the first port of call if you have disappointing brakes is to get some better brake pads. They aren’t cheap (certainly not as cheap as eBay/Temu pads) but they are cheaper than a new set of brakes and they genuinely can make a massive difference. A lot of well-regarded modern brake manufacturers will attest that part of their leap in performance is due to sourcing better brake pad materials.
Mountain Bike Guide The Lake District, The Howgills & The Yorkshire Dales
- Price: £9.00 & £8.50
- From: These are from The Singletrack Library. Amazon have a few copies left.
Cue loads of nostalgia, followed by barely disguised bile and bitterness. The infamous ‘little blue books of lies’ (as some folk called them). Guide books nominally about ‘mountain biking’ in the Lake District, so long as your idea of ‘mountain biking’ in the 90s was mainly about carrying your bike – downhill as well as uphill. ‘Rock scrambling whilst carrying/dragging/chucking a bike around’ was perhaps a better description. These books seemed to have two effects on those who used them: 1) they never rode mountain bikes ever again, 2) they never did anything else except ride mountain bikes. Anyway, we’ve dug these books out for A Thing that we’re contemplating. Now where did I stash that pipe lagging..?
Cadence Cycleworks
- Price: N/A
- From: Todmorden, UK
Singletrack Magazine has new neighbours! Nearly. What we have lost in vastly overpriced sandwiches and pastry goods, we hope to gain in having a decent bike shop close by again. Cadence Cycleworks used to be located further up the valley (towards Havok Bike Park) but are currently moving to be in the cycling capital of the western world AKA Todmorden.
Featured Subscriber Reward: 80% off Tails.com
- Deal: 80% off the 1st box of Tails.com
- From: Singletrack Rewards
About Tails.com: “Tails.com creates 100% tailored meals for your dog, based on age, breed, lifestyle, and health goals. With evolving nutrition through every life stage, your dog enjoys everything they need and the flavours they love. Their personalised plan arrives monthly at your door, making healthy feeding simple.“
Forum Thread of the Week
This week’s winner is mattyfez for the shark-jumping Films/tv that should have stopped whilst they were ahead thread:
The winning TOTW in FGF gets a prize. So mattyfez please email editorial@singletrackworld.com for a random prize. Don’t forget to include your postal address.
Stale Goods Friday – 2011 Trek Scratch Air 9
- Price: £4,200 (adjusted for inflation = £6,2,65.77)
- From: Fresh Goods Friday 87
We’d forgotten all about the Scratch! Anyway, back in 2011 we wrote: “It’s big, it’s burly and it’s made for getting gnarly, it’s the Scratch! We rode one at the launch a while back and this bike is in for the test in Issue 66. The theme is ‘Winch and Plummet’, so bikes for suffering up the top and then going totally mental on the way down – which should be just in time for you to think about getting a bike that’ll handle the Alps or big mountains closer to home in summer. This is the lighter version of the Scratch, using a high volume can Fox RP23 instead of the DHX RC4 shock found on its bike park based brethren the Scratch Coil. You get 170mm of rear wheel travel via the ABP concentric dropout pivot, which uses the latest 142mm thru axle ‘Convert’ rear end. The shock is actuated from both ends by the Full Floater system (stop sniggering) and there’s a set of 140/160mm Fox 36 TALAS forks up front.”
A 90s Dream
“To celebrate HUNT’s 10th anniversary, we decided to bring that feeling back—and dial it all the way up. The result: a heavily neon-infused build, unapologetically playful and rooted in the era that made us fall in love with bikes in the first place.”
Fresh Goods Friday is sponsored by Yellow Jersey
My dad left me the exact same Hazet expandable tool chest that’s in the Hunt video, lovely bit of kit.
Those books are on my guidebook shelf. They taught me to plan your own routes, use a map and to smile in adversity.
those books are possibly the main reason i ride mountainbikes.
ticked most of the yorkshire and lakes routes off in the 80’s and 90’s.
the red pike/high style/high crag route is burned into my brain, in the never repeat area……….. ;o)
Thanks for the Amazon link Ben, I’ve snapped up a copy of each, less than £7 for both including delivery!
Was there not a bike shop on Rochdale Rd in Tod, once upon a while?
I’m still sad that Clouds in my Coffee has gone, but the Cheesehouse lives on, and that’s what really matters.
I was pretty convinced for a while that Jeremy Ashcroft was a Ramblers sleeper agent.
Also, The graphics on that Trek are not doing it any favours…
The comments on those blue books are spot on. When I started plotting my own routes and riding with others things got better.
I think I still have them but should have given them to charity decades ago.
Some brake pads and some valves. Another quiet week for incoming post at STW towers!
fond memories of the original Jeremy Ashcroft book, helped me navigate the routes for my first trip to the Yorkshire Dales back in the mid 90’s. Still ride some of them last time I was in the UK
While some of the books are full of solid type 2 and type 3 fun, many in the series are now fab for gravel routes.